Welcome to the Center for East Asian Studies
Taiwan Studies Initiative

The Taiwan Studies Initiative is a multi-department effort to expand teaching and learning about Taiwan on the UW-Madison campus and beyond. Begun in 2011 with a generous four-year grant from the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (Chicago), under the direction of Professor Nicole Huang (East Asian Languages and Literature), this initiative has worked to develop Taiwan Studies by focusing on five areas of support:

* Visiting Taiwan Studies scholars at the UW-Madison
* Taiwan Studies course development at the UW-Madison
* Study opportunities in Taiwan for UW students
* The collection of Taiwan Studies materials in the East Asian Collection, Memorial Library
* Outreach on Taiwan Studies to the campus and the community

Among the highlights of the past four years of Taiwan Studies development:

* Establishment of the first archive of Taiwan film in the United States. The brainchild of Professor Huang and Professor Lin Wen-chi (Director of the Chinese Taipei Film Archive, National Central University), this project is adding 30 new and classic films from Taiwan in 35mm prints to an existing cache of 16mm prints housed at the Wisconsin Center for Film and Theater Research. Each year the new acquisitions have been screened by CEAS, Cinematheque, and the Wisconsin Film Festival, and have circulated among other U.S. universities in a traveling film festival.

* Establishment of the UW-Madison as an information point for the new Taiwan Academy program administered by TECO, which aims to provide high-quality educational experiences about Taiwan to American students through language certification and scholarships

* Development of new courses dealing with Taiwan in the departments of Anthropology (Archaeology), East Asian Languages & Literature (Film and Visual Culture), East Asian Studies (Popular Culture and Social Sciences), and Curriculum & Instruction (Comparative Higher Education Policy), with more on the way.

* Acquisition of more than $40,000 of library materials dealing with Taiwan and Greater China

* Establishment of an annual Taiwan Arts Festival led by Professor Yu Jin-wen (Dance department). This festival, which takes place each Fall semester, involves all of the Taiwan student organizations as well as bringing performers in from Taiwan, and has introduced Madison audiences to the film, dance, martial arts, puppets, fashion, and food of Taiwan.

* Celebration of the 20th anniversary of the North American Taiwan Studies Association by establishing the first local chapter of that organization (NATSA-WIC) and hosting the annual conference in the summer of 2014.

For more information on these and other programs within the Taiwan Studies Initiative, please follow the links on either side of this page. We are now in the process of planning the next four years of Taiwan Studies development at the UW-Madison, and look forward to your involvement and support.